Navigating Brainstrips
Brainstrips (is it Brain Strips, or Brains Trips?) requires a base amount of interactivity, mostly to click through. On the first page, you can see that it calls itself a Three-Part Knowledge series, which is essentially what it is. There is some decision making that can be done in terms of what order you go through this in, but the main sections have to be done in order: Strip, Brain, and then S. You can see when you hover over BRAINSTRIPS that the part you will do next is highlighted in red.
STRIP
When we move to STRIP, you can see that it takes the form of old-school comics, similar to what you would see in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. On the main page, we have two men and a woman in what appears to be a love triangle situation, with the woman deciding on one over the other (the Meaning of Life?). Each page of this section of the work examines a philosophical question, which are listed in the bottom right. Clicking on one takes you to that page.
For each page, we have a one page comic, usually four panels, but sometimes it’s split in other ways. Unlike a print comic, there is usually some kind of frenetic motion to the page, particularly with the text, but sometimes with some of the images. Each page has a story premise that in some way attempts to answer its stated philosophical question, but the conclusions it reaches are often odd if not illogical in the context of the rest of the piece. For example, in “Are men more sensitive than women?” we see that a couple women have polled a wide variety of men asking if they are sensitive, with the general consensus being "No." But the women's conclusion isn't that men aren't more sensitive than women, but rather that they need to splice men's genes in order to make them more sensitive. It's a bit of an unsatisfactory conclusion, because it wasn't part of the setup.
Once we are done with a page, we go back to the main page and see we can't click on anything we've already done. We have to move on. We get to make some decisions as to how to move through the comics, but we have to keep moving forward. We cannot go back.
Once we've looked at all the sub-pages, we can see that the questions have now been replaces with a special advertising section, which takes us to a 50s-style ad wanting us to Invent Our Own Philosophy. The only thing we can do here is click on the button to begin creating it, which just tells us Thank You, and returns us to the title page.
However, when we get back to the title, we can see that STRIP is gone. All we have left is BRAIN S. When we hover over, the BRAIN portion lights up, and that's where we go next.
BRAIN
This takes us to another themed page, this time about science. Like the STRIP focus on comics, this has something of an old-fashioned mainstream science feel, as if it's an insert in a 50s magazine. Like STRIP, there are also places to click, though this time, the places are scattered around the page. Also like STRIP, once we complete a section, we cannot go back to it.
Clicking on a link takes us to some scientific facts, presented as a sort of slide show. We have some rudimentary art in the background to illustrate concepts, which are explained in simple ideas. Unlike the comics, though, we do have to scroll through multiple pages to get everything, and we do have the option of going backwards. Also like STRIP, while the science is generally sound, the conclusions tend to come out of left-field. For example, in the "Gravity and You" section, it explains the concept of using gravity to travel through the Earth with no need for propulsion or fuel or anything. In the real theory, the idea is that gravity pulls you to the center, speeding you up the whole time, but then once you pass the center, it will slow you down, bringing you to a complete stop when you reach the opposite end. But in this example, the idea is the same, but the conclusion is that the center of the earth will burn you to a crisp, leaving your ashes to spread on a garden on the opposite side of the world. It leaves us to wonder, what's the point?
When we've read all the pages of BRAIN, we are given a quiz filled with nonsensical questions. They are semi-related to the topics we just read, but like the conclusions to the topics, the really don't mean a whole lot. In fact, the questions tend to use scientific terms to ask more philosophical questions. While we are given multiple options, regardless of how you answer, we get the same results, which is the screen being proliferated with words suggesting we are an idiot.
Eventually, we return to the title page, which just has the S left to click.
S
This section has a math theme. Like the BRAIN section, the selections are haphazardly scattered over the screen. Also like BRAIN, we are taken to a multi-page screen that presents a theory that we have to scroll through, this time with a mathematics base. Also like the previous section, the math is generally presented in some odd philosophical way. For example, in The Googolplex, it discusses a girl ruminating on the idea of the Googolplex, which is a really large number (a 1 followed by a googol of zeroes), and how she doesn't really understand it. It then explains that if she were to be asked about it, "she's say forget the zeroes--just look at the 1..." (click to next page) "'That's me,' she's say and walk away." So the story is of a girl who is confident in herself and/or egotistic, but it's being wrapped up in a math term.
Once we go through the entire section, we are given another quiz, this time using math to ask us philosophical questions. Interestingly, we can see that on each question, there is an answer that equates to "I don't know," but clicking on it takes you to a quick video that essentially calls you an idiot, and returns you to the question. Answering all the questions takes us to a results page which does differ depending on how you answered the questions. However, when you click through to it's "suggestion," it always takes you to the same "Page Not Found," and then goes to a short video essentially calling you an idiot again, which concludes the project.
Analysis of Brainstrips
Presenting a non-traditional piece of literature to an introduction to literature course [since Mark and I both teach in college, I’m aiming more that direction, but certainly the same problems and solutions could apply to the high school level], such as “Brainstrips”, could seem, at first, a daunting task. But slowing down and examining the piece may give you clues as to how to present the piece, especially recalling Hayles analysis of elit calling into, and enhancing at the same time, the skills of how we know that which we think we know, and exactly how we got to know it in the first place. Confused? Take the quiz then.
The quiz presents itself in three parts (actually saying it is a three part knowledge series): Strips (which is presented in traditional comic strip form), Brains (which is presented as science for idiots), and s (presented as a section of Higher Math, presented by “A Mat Knowledge Institute publication).
So what are the expectations that are set up? What would be a student’s idea of a comic? Do comics (especially strips from the 50’s, as is depicted in the piece) deal with heady questions like: What is art? Are men more sensitive than women? Does God exist? These philosophical questions don’t feel right in being contemplated in a comic strip format, and the comics themselves make light of the topics, seem to give unexpected takes on the topics, or are reflexive in an ironic way. On first view, the expectations set up by the comic seem out of place, but then put together with the rest of the piece, it just might not be out of place after all.
The science portion gives interesting “facts” about science, but is the information reliable or even useful. What are the expectations from science? Let’s not forget that the section is “Science for Idiots”, so who are the idiots? Is it the scientist that comes up with and presents useless information? Is it the person who lacks scientific knowledge? And we are programmed early on to take quizzes and tests in school, and even to fill in boxes online and on print quizzes, but the expectation is that there are right and wrong answers in science, but this doesn’t seem to be the case in this section of the piece. The math section seems to operate on the same level.
Discussion
But what is happening here? Is the piece saying something about how we acquire our knowledge? Is it showing the useless nature of philosophy, science, and math? Is it making commentary on the commodification of knowledge, and the captive nature in which we seem to learn? With all the sounds, bells, whistles, ambient noise, random pictures, unstable boxes, and graphic sketches, what kind of ideas are we learning from the computer components themselves as well?
Ultimately, we as academics and scholars could provide the guide for the confusion. By not presenting absolutes, as does the piece, we can then open up the possibility of meaning for the piece. Perhaps the use[ful][less]ness of the information presented in the piece can be saying something about how we rely on experts, including the computer, to help shape [enslave] ourselves in the digital age. Despite the slick presentation, and familiarity with the subject matter, the confusion felt could just be the teaching opportunity an instructor needs to present this piece.
Mark Thomas
BRAINSTRIPS
Navigating Brainstrips
Brainstrips (is it Brain Strips, or Brains Trips?) requires a base amount of interactivity, mostly to click through. On the first page, you can see that it calls itself a Three-Part Knowledge series, which is essentially what it is. There is some decision making that can be done in terms of what order you go through this in, but the main sections have to be done in order: Strip, Brain, and then S. You can see when you hover over BRAINSTRIPS that the part you will do next is highlighted in red.
STRIP
When we move to STRIP, you can see that it takes the form of old-school comics, similar to what you would see in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. On the main page, we have two men and a woman in what appears to be a love triangle situation, with the woman deciding on one over the other (the Meaning of Life?). Each page of this section of the work examines a philosophical question, which are listed in the bottom right. Clicking on one takes you to that page.
For each page, we have a one page comic, usually four panels, but sometimes it’s split in other ways. Unlike a print comic, there is usually some kind of frenetic motion to the page, particularly with the text, but sometimes with some of the images. Each page has a story premise that in some way attempts to answer its stated philosophical question, but the conclusions it reaches are often odd if not illogical in the context of the rest of the piece. For example, in “Are men more sensitive than women?” we see that a couple women have polled a wide variety of men asking if they are sensitive, with the general consensus being "No." But the women's conclusion isn't that men aren't more sensitive than women, but rather that they need to splice men's genes in order to make them more sensitive. It's a bit of an unsatisfactory conclusion, because it wasn't part of the setup.
Once we are done with a page, we go back to the main page and see we can't click on anything we've already done. We have to move on. We get to make some decisions as to how to move through the comics, but we have to keep moving forward. We cannot go back.
Once we've looked at all the sub-pages, we can see that the questions have now been replaces with a special advertising section, which takes us to a 50s-style ad wanting us to Invent Our Own Philosophy. The only thing we can do here is click on the button to begin creating it, which just tells us Thank You, and returns us to the title page.
However, when we get back to the title, we can see that STRIP is gone. All we have left is BRAIN S. When we hover over, the BRAIN portion lights up, and that's where we go next.
BRAIN
This takes us to another themed page, this time about science. Like the STRIP focus on comics, this has something of an old-fashioned mainstream science feel, as if it's an insert in a 50s magazine. Like STRIP, there are also places to click, though this time, the places are scattered around the page. Also like STRIP, once we complete a section, we cannot go back to it.
Clicking on a link takes us to some scientific facts, presented as a sort of slide show. We have some rudimentary art in the background to illustrate concepts, which are explained in simple ideas. Unlike the comics, though, we do have to scroll through multiple pages to get everything, and we do have the option of going backwards. Also like STRIP, while the science is generally sound, the conclusions tend to come out of left-field. For example, in the "Gravity and You" section, it explains the concept of using gravity to travel through the Earth with no need for propulsion or fuel or anything. In the real theory, the idea is that gravity pulls you to the center, speeding you up the whole time, but then once you pass the center, it will slow you down, bringing you to a complete stop when you reach the opposite end. But in this example, the idea is the same, but the conclusion is that the center of the earth will burn you to a crisp, leaving your ashes to spread on a garden on the opposite side of the world. It leaves us to wonder, what's the point?
When we've read all the pages of BRAIN, we are given a quiz filled with nonsensical questions. They are semi-related to the topics we just read, but like the conclusions to the topics, the really don't mean a whole lot. In fact, the questions tend to use scientific terms to ask more philosophical questions. While we are given multiple options, regardless of how you answer, we get the same results, which is the screen being proliferated with words suggesting we are an idiot.
Eventually, we return to the title page, which just has the S left to click.
S
This section has a math theme. Like the BRAIN section, the selections are haphazardly scattered over the screen. Also like BRAIN, we are taken to a multi-page screen that presents a theory that we have to scroll through, this time with a mathematics base. Also like the previous section, the math is generally presented in some odd philosophical way. For example, in The Googolplex, it discusses a girl ruminating on the idea of the Googolplex, which is a really large number (a 1 followed by a googol of zeroes), and how she doesn't really understand it. It then explains that if she were to be asked about it, "she's say forget the zeroes--just look at the 1..." (click to next page) "'That's me,' she's say and walk away." So the story is of a girl who is confident in herself and/or egotistic, but it's being wrapped up in a math term.
Once we go through the entire section, we are given another quiz, this time using math to ask us philosophical questions. Interestingly, we can see that on each question, there is an answer that equates to "I don't know," but clicking on it takes you to a quick video that essentially calls you an idiot, and returns you to the question. Answering all the questions takes us to a results page which does differ depending on how you answered the questions. However, when you click through to it's "suggestion," it always takes you to the same "Page Not Found," and then goes to a short video essentially calling you an idiot again, which concludes the project.
Analysis of Brainstrips
Presenting a non-traditional piece of literature to an introduction to literature course [since Mark and I both teach in college, I’m aiming more that direction, but certainly the same problems and solutions could apply to the high school level], such as “Brainstrips”, could seem, at first, a daunting task. But slowing down and examining the piece may give you clues as to how to present the piece, especially recalling Hayles analysis of elit calling into, and enhancing at the same time, the skills of how we know that which we think we know, and exactly how we got to know it in the first place. Confused? Take the quiz then.
The quiz presents itself in three parts (actually saying it is a three part knowledge series): Strips (which is presented in traditional comic strip form), Brains (which is presented as science for idiots), and s (presented as a section of Higher Math, presented by “A Mat Knowledge Institute publication).
So what are the expectations that are set up? What would be a student’s idea of a comic? Do comics (especially strips from the 50’s, as is depicted in the piece) deal with heady questions like: What is art? Are men more sensitive than women? Does God exist? These philosophical questions don’t feel right in being contemplated in a comic strip format, and the comics themselves make light of the topics, seem to give unexpected takes on the topics, or are reflexive in an ironic way. On first view, the expectations set up by the comic seem out of place, but then put together with the rest of the piece, it just might not be out of place after all.
The science portion gives interesting “facts” about science, but is the information reliable or even useful. What are the expectations from science? Let’s not forget that the section is “Science for Idiots”, so who are the idiots? Is it the scientist that comes up with and presents useless information? Is it the person who lacks scientific knowledge? And we are programmed early on to take quizzes and tests in school, and even to fill in boxes online and on print quizzes, but the expectation is that there are right and wrong answers in science, but this doesn’t seem to be the case in this section of the piece. The math section seems to operate on the same level.
Discussion
But what is happening here? Is the piece saying something about how we acquire our knowledge? Is it showing the useless nature of philosophy, science, and math? Is it making commentary on the commodification of knowledge, and the captive nature in which we seem to learn? With all the sounds, bells, whistles, ambient noise, random pictures, unstable boxes, and graphic sketches, what kind of ideas are we learning from the computer components themselves as well?
Ultimately, we as academics and scholars could provide the guide for the confusion. By not presenting absolutes, as does the piece, we can then open up the possibility of meaning for the piece. Perhaps the use[ful][less]ness of the information presented in the piece can be saying something about how we rely on experts, including the computer, to help shape [enslave] ourselves in the digital age. Despite the slick presentation, and familiarity with the subject matter, the confusion felt could just be the teaching opportunity an instructor needs to present this piece.